Venn diagram between tall tale and fairy tale?
Tales of wonder and enchantment often embody the cumulative
experiences of a society (or culture) as the people wished to
recall past wisdom for themselves and pass it on to future
generations. Traditionally, folktales are oral transmissions of
stories which have no location in time and space; therefore, these
tales can be about anyone, anywhere. Folk tales do concern people,
either royalty or common folk, or animals that speak and act like
people (typically the animals chosen are personifications of the
human traits that are being emphasized). Folk tales serve as
symbolic references about the different means by which humans cope
in the culture and world within which they live.
Fairy tales are a subgenre of folk tales. More specifically, the
literary fairy tales of Western cultures have been removed from
oral tradition and set down on paper by one or more authors. This
recording of fairy tales changed the evolution of these tales in
that they became more fixed in content and structure than oral
tales that change and flow with each person re-telling the story.
Fairy tales explore inner conflicts in a simple, homely way.
Instead of dictating how an audience should react, fairy tales
allow for discovery, give reassurance and hope, and hold out the
possibility of a happy ending for the common person. A critical
element of fairy tales that sets them apart from folk lore is that
they must contain magic or supernatural intervention. In addition,
there often is something that is implicitly or explicitly
prohibited that affects the plot, and in the end some manner of
transformation takes place (either a physcial transformation or a
character's inner transformation of identity or personality
trait).